A majority of the leading candidates for San Francisco mayor
would name a designated adviser on HIV and AIDS policy in their City Hall
administration should they be elected next month.

And they would set aside up to 20 percent of units for
people living with HIV and AIDS in new housing developments built in the
Castro, the heart of the city's LGBT community. They would also see that
recommendations from the city's Hepatitis C Task Force be put into place and
look at how to hire HIV-positive people without jeopardizing their government
assistance.

Those were some of the policy positions to be articulated at
a mayoral forum this month on HIV and AIDS that a number of AIDS service
providers and nonprofit groups hosted. It was the first time that many of the
candidates had directly addressed questions about the devastating disease, as
up until the forum the mayor's race had largely ignored the topic.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera, one of seven candidates to
take part in the forum, offered an apology for not addressing AIDS policy
sooner in the campaign.

"We were not looking at this as an issue. We probably
should have brought it up earlier in the campaign," he said.

State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), the sole
candidate to wear a red ribbon on his jacket lapel, acknowledged that growing
up in San Francisco the issue of being gay or having HIV "was just
absolutely foreign to me." But his time working at a community clinic in
Santa Clara County and serving on the city's school board brought both issues
home to him.

During his time in Sacramento Yee said he has fought to
maintain funding for HIV programs.

"When I went to the state Legislature I said no, I will
not vote for cuts into AIDS programs," said Yee.

Gay former Supervisor Bevan Dufty criticized the city's past
three mayors for submitting budgets to the Board of Supervisors with cuts in
AIDS services knowing the board would add the money back. He said doing so,
nonetheless, forces service providers and patients to waste time lobbying at
City Hall to restore the money.

"As mayor I will never submit a budget with cuts to HIV
and AIDS services," said Dufty.

Herrera made a similar pledge.

"I want to echo Bevan on this. You will never see any
cuts to HIV funding in my administration," he said.

Board President David Chiu pointed out that he sought to
bring in nonprofits and community leaders this year early on in the
budget-making process. It led to mayoral town halls in all 11 supervisorial districts
on the budget and other city issues, he said.

"Like Bevan, I don't want to go there with this Kabuki
theater where the mayor cuts and the board restores," said Chiu.

He pledged to first look for efficiencies within city
departments and streamlining oversight procedures before asking nonprofits to
make further cutbacks in staffing and services.

"It is pretty easy for folks to bash nonprofits by
blaming nonprofits for the problems. Most nonprofit workers are the least
valued, are the most underpaid and are doing the most important work in this
city," he said. "There is hundreds of millions of dollars in city
government that could be used to fund the social safety net for people with HIV
and AIDS."

The candidates were less specific when it came to ideas on
how to fund AIDS programs. Lesbian Green Party candidate Terry Baum said she
wanted to explore imposing an income tax in San Francisco and would push to
change state law barring such a revenue-generating scheme.

"We have to demand the wealthy of our country pay their
fare share," said Baum.

Herrera expressed support for moving away from a payroll tax
to a gross receipts tax and pushing for a parcel tax to pay for city parks.

"We can no longer have government we are unwilling to
pay for," he said.

The October 19 forum drew 100 people to the auditorium at
the state office building in the city's Civic Center area. As the Bay Area
Reporter noted in an online story last
week, interim Mayor Ed Lee skipped the event and instead showed up at an AIDS
agency's fundraiser held a block away that night. (Supervisor John Avalos came
to make introductory remarks but left soon after to attend two other events.)

Lee did submit answers to a questionnaire that organizers
had sent out to the candidates. He wrote that he has worked "to protect
HIV/AIDS services and funding" and pledged to do so if elected to a full
term.

"I will continue to engage our communities and
nonprofits to find ways to maintain and enhance services given the new economic
realities we now face," stated Lee.

When asked if he would maintain $3.5 million in city funding
for housing vouchers for HIV positive people, Lee was vague in his response,
writing he would "continue to build on our city's safety net" and be
"a strong ally for this cause."

He also was noncommittal when asked if he would hire an AIDS
czar. Instead Lee wrote he would "commit senior level staff" from his
office and the Department of Public Health and Human Services Agency to oversee
programs for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Apart from the mayor's absence the other surprise was former
Supervisor Tony Hall's decision to take part. Even one of the other candidates
asked him what he was doing there, said Hall, who is considered the most
conservative of the main candidates in the race.

Hall made a cringe-inducing mistake by using the term
"sexual preference," which implies being gay is a choice, rather than
sexual orientation. But he also disclosed he has lost four close friends and
family members to AIDS. He not only pledged to protect AIDS services if elected
mayor, he also voiced support for creating a safe injection site for
intravenous drug users.